Samantha MacLeod's Blog, page 10
September 20, 2018
Mermaid Fins & Profit Margins: Two Years in Indy Publishing
September is a big month in Samantha MacLeod Land.
It’s the month I go back to work as a teacher. It’s the month I became a mother, back in 2010.
And, on September 6, 2016, I published The Trickster’s Lover and became an independent author.
Last year I wrote a super exciting blog post about the sexy side of independent publishing… the finances, baby! (click here for that) In keeping with tradition, here’s my annual update on the state of the Samantha MacLeod Publishing Empire.
I’ve got three (three!!!) novels now available:
The Trickster’s Lover (Loki Series book 1)
The Trickster’s Song (Loki Series book 3)
As well as three novellas:
The Trickster’s Honeymoon (Loki Series book 2)
And three sexy short stories (plus assorted others in anthologies)
Persephone Remembers the Pomegranates (free!)
So, how’s that working out for me?
Whoa – I’ve sold over a thousand books in this second year of indy publishing.
[image error]Am I in the matrix or what?
I also started tracking my sales and expenses like a madwoman. By keeping my advertising budget down to “almost nada” and continuing to churn out books… I actually made more than I spent this year.
Now, we’re not talking “quit my day job” money. I’m still working – as a philosophy professor and writing instructor, for those of you keeping track. But quitting my day job doesn’t seem quite as crazy as it once did.
And, when my daughter turned eight this month and begged us for a ridiculous swimmable mermaid fin and tail…
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Reader, I bought it. With my smut money.
So, if you bought one of Samantha MacLeod’s stories in the past year, you also helped to make a little girl’s absurdly expensive birthday wish come true.
Thank you. 
September 18, 2018
All. The. Loki.
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Long ago, Loki the Trickster tried to steal the golden apples of immortality. But why? And what did he plan to do with them?
Now, Loki’s mortal wife Caroline has just given birth to their first child. The sleep-deprived parents struggle to enjoy their first night out in months, but an old song gives rise to older memories, and Caroline finally hears the dark and heartbreaking story of why Loki attempted to steal Iðunn’s magical apples.
And what he lost in the attempt.
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But is it any good?
Well, you’re the ultimate judge of that, my virtual friend. But here’s what readers are saying:
“It reminds the reader that all of us are to a large extent the products of our pasts, however painful or joyful they may be,” Tina of A Reader’s Review Blog writes. “Highly recommended for lovers of tales containing myths and legends, which explore both the darkness and the joy that can mark our existence.”
“Samantha Macleod does it again! Building on the characters she gave us in the her previous books, we learn even more about Loki of the Aesir. This book is a wonderful blend of romance, sensual scenes, action, and Norse Mythology. Be prepared to fall more in love with Loki with every page.” – Samantha West, Goodreads 5 star review
“I really loved this and think it just might be Samantha’s best yet. She got Loki just the way he should be: very sneaky and flawed and clever with loads of heart beneath it all.” – Moselle Green, Goodreads 5 star review
“I loved this book beyond what words can express and wish I could give more than five stars.” – Jayne, Goodreads 5 star review
Interested? Click here to read it for yourself!
Like what you’ve read? Join my newsletter and I’ll send you a free copy of Tam Lin, my sexy modern take on the Scottish folktale.
September 16, 2018
“Just wow! Beautifully crafted work”
The Trickster’s Song, the third book in my Loki series, comes out on Tuesday.
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So I’ve been spending this week biting my fingernails, waiting to hear back from the absolutely glorious people who requested Advance Review Copies.
What have they said so far?
Well, according to Tina Williams of A Reader’s Review Blog:
“I’ve been fortunate to have read all of the books in Samantha Macleod’s Loki series and they are all excellent reads. With The Trickster’s Song however, she has surpassed herself in raising the bar even higher in terms of the quality of her writing and storytelling.”
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“It reminds the reader that all of us are to a large extent the products of our pasts, however painful or joyful they may be,” she continues. “Highly recommended for lovers of tales containing myths and legends, which explore both the darkness and the joy that can mark our existence.”
Thank you, Tina!
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Click here to read the entire review
Like what you’ve read? Join my newsletter and I’ll send you a free copy of Tam Lin, my sexy modern take on the Scottish folktale.
September 6, 2018
Death Gets a Makeover
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And, for the next two days, it’s also FREE
Click here to claim your free copy on Amazon
Click here to claim your free copy elsewhere
But why, Samantha?
Why did you change the name of your fantasy romance inspired by Norse mythology?
As much as I loved the name Death and Beauty (it does have a nice ring to it, right?), and as much as I loved the first cover Teresa Conner designed for me… We do all judge a book by its cover.
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And that cover, with that title, kind of looks like a horror story.
Yes, the story takes place in the Realm of the Inglorious Dead. And yes, Hel is half skeleton. But the story is a sexy, fun romance, not a Stephen King. (Nothing against Stephen King – he’s one of my writing heroes.)
My husband suggested the name Hel’s Lover, and Teresa Conner came up with this awesome reboot:
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Intrigued? Grab your copy now while it’s free!
August 29, 2018
Loki Makes Bad Choices
My awesome friend JennJenn gave me this fantastic shirt, and I freaking love it on so many levels.
I have ridiculous nicknames for most of my books, and even some of my chapters. Like: Let’s Make a Deal with Death. Or: Loki Meets a Girl.
When I decided to double the length of the next book in the Loki series and push back its release date, I started to call it Loki Makes Bad Choices.
And, as my shirt clearly points out, Bad Choices Make Good Stories.
But, as much as I love bad choices, I’m pretty sure Loki Makes Bad Choices is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad name for a dark fantasy novel with loads of erotica. So I went with the name my husband suggested instead.
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The Trickster’s Song, AKA Loki Makes Bad Choices, is now available for pre-order on Amazon. It’s $2.99 now, but the price will go up a whole dollar once it’s live.
Click here to pre-order The Trickster’s Song
Like what you’ve read? Join my newsletter and I’ll send you a free copy of Tam Lin, my sexy modern take on the Scottish folktale.
August 22, 2018
Big Changes for Baldr and Hel
I’ve got big news in the works for my fantasy romance inspired by the Norse myth of Odin’s son Baldr and Loki’s daughter Hel!
And that means it’s time to clean out the old…
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I’ve got two signed paperbacks of Death and Beauty just hanging out in my office, and I’d like to send them to you, my virtual friend!
Click here to enter the giveaway
What kind of changes do I have in the works, you may ask?
Well, stay tuned!
Yes, I was going to write something more exciting… but the whole family has a stomach virus, the husband and I go back to work next week, and we’ve basically survived the last three days on instant oatmeal and Lord of the Rings marathons.
On the plus side, my four-year-old now knows the difference between an orc and Uruk-hai.
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Like what you’ve read? Join my newsletter and I’ll send you a free copy of Tam Lin, my sexy modern take on the Scottish folktale.
August 18, 2018
Chastity
I spent the afternoon at a public writing workshop, which is the kind of amazing thing that just happens in my awesome little Maine town.
The author Diana Altman, who you should defiantly check out if you’re even a little bit interested in the history of film making and Hollywood, held a writing workshop at Nathanial Hawthorne’s childhood home. (Yes, I live in the same town Hawthorne did – click here for that story.) Because of the setting, she used Hawthorne-esque words as writing prompts for our ten-minute writing exercises.
My personal favorite?
Chastity
Overrated, I’m assured.
And, even if one counts it among the virtues, it must be admitted that it is a tad dull. To withhold. To deny. To remain as you were in childhood. Infancy, even.
Well, now, that’s all a bit much.
As if you were given a sip from life’s fountain, one sweetly bitter draught from the spring in the garden — you know which one, my dears; we all know — and then told, No! That’s quite enough, thank you very much. That one sip will do you.
And if you spend every night dreaming of that fountain? If the way the nectar burned against your tongue haunts your nights, if it even seeps into your days, so that you find yourself standing at the kitchen sink, perhaps, and scrubbing the last vestiges of the morning’s porridge from the pot, and you start to think, Oh, stars! What I wouldn’t do for one more taste!
And then you begin to remember the path through the garden — you know the path, don’t you, sweetness? You remember the way it turns and bends? A left at the great oak, another right beyond the aspen grove.
Yes, you know the way. The fountain is still there, my darling. It still flows.
Perhaps it would even flow for you.
But, no! Your thoughts slam shut like the oaken door. That’s one sip you’ve had, one drop for you, and that’s all you’ll ever take.
Well, that’s chastity for you.
* * *
(Thanks to everyone who attended the workshop, especially those of you who laughed at that last line. And thank you, Diana Altman, for hosting. You’re an inspiration!)
Like what you’ve read? Join my newsletter and I’ll send you a free copy of Tam Lin, my sexy modern take on the Scottish folktale.
August 17, 2018
DONE!!!!
349 pages of line edits to enter on the computer, and it’s ALL DONE!!!
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The Trickster’s Song, third book in the Loki series, is officially finished. Stick a fork in that puppy, baby, ’cause she’s done, done, DONE!
(But don’t really, because sticking a fork in a puppy is just evil.)
I wasn’t sure I’d be able to pull this one off before I send the novel out to my amazing ARC readers on Monday. But hell yeah, I did it!
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Want to be one of those amazing ARC readers who will get a totally free copy of The Trickster’s Song in exchange for leaving an honest review when the book is released?
Click here to fill out the form.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some celebrating to do.
And by celebrating, I mean weeding in the garden. 
August 10, 2018
Cover Reveal: The Trickster’s Song
The next book in The Loki Series comes out next month!
And I freaking love the cover Teresa Conner designed for me.
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Long ago, the Norse myths tell us, Loki the Trickster stole the golden apples of immortality.
But why? And what did he plan to do with them?
Now, Loki’s mortal wife Caroline has just given birth to their first child. The sleep-deprived parents attempt to enjoy their first night out in months, but an old song gives rise to older memories, and Caroline finally hears the dark and heartbreaking story of why Loki attempted to steal Iðunn’s magical, golden apples.
And who they were for.
Intrigued?
If you’re willing to post an honest review during release week, please click here to request a free Advance Review Copy.
Not the reviewing type? Stay tuned – the pre-order will be available later this month!
Wondering who the heck Caroline is and how she ended up with a Norse god? Click here to check out the first book in The Loki Series, The Trickster’s Lover. (Use the code LOKI to take 25% off.)
Like what you’ve read? Join my newsletter and I’ll send you a free copy of Tam Lin, my sexy modern take on the Scottish folktale.
August 7, 2018
How Are Loki and Caroline?
I’ve finally finished the edits for my next Loki novel, The Trickster’s Song!
[image error]348 pages of this
Of course, I still need to take those edits off the paper and put them on the computer, then tie up a million other loose ends (like numbering my chapters), but we’re on track for a September release of my third full-length novel.
Let’s celebrate, shall we?
How about checking in on Loki and Caroline for a minute? Right now they happen to be standing on a windswept cliff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean…
The Trickster’s Song Excerpt
“You know, this place is a bit of a geological marvel,” Loki said. “By all rights, it should have crashed into the Atlantic hundreds of years ago.”
He gave me a little half-smile, the kind of expression he wore when he’d done something especially sneaky with his magic. Like when he turned our linen closet into the entrance to an enormous, subterranean hot springs lined with thousands of candles.
“I assume the phenomenon has been thoroughly researched?” I asked, playing into his game.
Loki shrugged. “There have been a few research expeditions. Oddly enough, they seem to run into terrible luck with their instruments.”
That smile returned, a bit stronger this time. I let my gaze wander from his face to the two burial mounds, lying side by side, separated by perhaps a thousand years. I didn’t ask if anyone had ever suggested an archaeological expedition. Even from here, I could feel the faint thrumming hum of Loki’s magic protecting this place. I could probably only see the mounds because he wanted me to see them.
The sting of tears welled behind my eyelids. Watching the green grass and the nodding blue heads of the flowers bob in the wind somehow made Loki’s story horribly, painfully real. Perhaps Loki felt the same, because his smile vanished as he turned to the ocean. He pressed his hand to his chest and reached into the folds of his armor.
A moment later, Loki held his arm out to me. He didn’t exactly meet my eyes; his gaze remained on the distant ocean. I wrapped my hand around his cold fingers, and he pressed something into my palm.
I brought my hand to my chest and unfurled my fingers slowly. It was a metal leaf. An iron leaf so old it had developed a gentle teal patina over its delicate veins and ridges. My vision blurred with tears as I ran my finger along the thin edges. It felt impossibly ancient.
“Do you…” I asked, but my voice faltered. “Do you always carry this around with you?”
Loki nodded, and the edges of his lips twitched up. “It’s part of my armor, now. Along with—”
He reached into the folds hear his heart a second time, then held his hand out to me again, his fingers clenched into a fist. I extended my arm, and he opened his hand, pressing something soft into my hand. I frowned. It was a rumpled bunch of bright red fabric. A gust of wind made me hunch my shoulders against the cold before I shook out the cloth.
Underwear. Women’s underwear. What the hell?
I stared with utter disbelief at the faded red underwear pinched between my fingers and fluttering happily in the wind. It wasn’t particularly sexy. It looked like plain, cotton undies. Hanes plain cotton undies, the kind that came in a plastic-wrapped pack of six at Wal-Mart. In fact, it looked just like something I would wear. Or something I would have worn, back in Chicago, when I was broke and single.
“Is this…mine?” I asked
Loki pulled the underwear from my hand and tucked in back into some secret pocket on his chest. “It was,” he said.
“You carry my underwear in your armor? What the fuck?”
His eyes darkened. “I took it from you when the clouds of Ragnarök began to gather. I wanted to die on Vígríðr holding something of yours.”
“Oh.” I blinked fast, trying to clear my eyes. I wasn’t sure if that made the whole thing more or less creepy. “Damn. What else do you carry around in there?”
The hint of a smile pulled at the corners of his lips. “Just this.”
He didn’t bother trying to hide the square of pale fabric he pulled from the folds of his armor. It fluttered open in the breeze, giving me a glimpse of pale pink and soft green as I took it from his outstretched hand. The fabric felt strangely light and insubstantial, as if it were woven of cobwebs. I smoothed it over my palm, although creases remained to show where it had been folded into a tight square.
The fabric was covered with tiny stitches, the kind of careful, even work I associated with machines. But there was something organic about this shape, something delicate and even loving which made me think it was handmade. I turned the fabric over in my hands, examining the image from all angles.
It was a flower. Five overlapping pink petals unfurled around a blazing yellow core. The threads were so fine I felt I could almost see the pollen-laden stamens bending against the petals. Green leaves twined protectively around the pink blossom.
I touched the stitching very gently with my fingertips. This had to be a wild rose, the kind which grew in thick tangles all over the dunes from San Diego to Seattle. It struck me as odd to make such a careful, beautiful representation of such an ordinary flower.
My gaze wandered from the embroidered flower in my hands to the burial mounds standing between me and the churning ocean. Loki had been married before. All the myths and legends mention his wife, Sigyn, the incantation-fetter. Sigyn the faithful. The beautiful woman who had been bound with Loki beneath the earth, when the other Æsir imprisoned him for Baldr’s death.
“Sigyn?” I asked. My voice trembled, although I tried to pretend that was only the wind.
“Yes. Sigyn.” His lips curved into a gentle, secret smile that made me feel like I’d swallowed broken glass.
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Want to read more?
Wondering who the heck Caroline is and how Loki ended up carrying her underwear to Ragnarök?
Click here to check out the first book in The Loki Series, The Trickster’s Lover. (Use the code LOKI to take 25% off.)
Like what you’ve read? Join my newsletter and I’ll send you a free copy of Tam Lin, my sexy modern take on the Scottish folktale.
